Train crash lawsuit alleges ‘gross negligence’ by CSX in fatal SC derailment
An Amtrak passenger has filed one of the first lawsuits against CSX in the wake of Sunday’s fatal train crash in Cayce.
The passenger, James Daymon of Florida, is seeking more than $75,000 in damages from CSX for “suffering permanent and long-lasting injuries.” The lawsuit, filed in Circuit Court in Lexington County, alleges the crash was caused by “gross negligence” and “reckless disregard” of safety standards by CSX.
The lawsuit also alleges CSX made a “deliberate decision that it will be cheaper to pay compensatory damages for claims resulting from train wrecks and derailments than to install and maintain an appropriate train control system.”
A CSX spokeswoman said Thursday, “CSX does not comment on litigation.”
The train crash and derailment in Sunday’s predawn hours was among the worst in recent S.C. history. Two people died, and more than 100 were injured. The damage to train cars is estimated to be in the millions of dollars.
Daymon, 74, is a great-grandfather and retired truck driver for U.S. Steel who lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., according to his lawyers. He was returning from a relative’s funeral in Raleigh at the time of the crash.
His lawsuit alleges major railroads, including CSX, have “defied” a 2008 federal law, called the Rail Safety Improvement Act, by stalling action on the installation of modern safety technology – called “positive train control.” That technology was to be in place nationwide by Dec. 31, 2015.
That train safety law was passed in response to the 2008 collision of a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink passenger train that killed 25 and injured 135.
CSX has announced its most recently quarterly profits of $4.14 billion, the lawsuit notes. It is “totally unjustifiable for CSX to take annual profits in the billions of dollars and simultaneously refuse to fund Positive Train Control to protect the lives of people who ride on its tracks,” the suit says.
Daymon was a passenger on Amtrak’s Silver Service train, which originated in New York and was bound for Miami, according to the lawsuit.
At the time of the crash, the Silver Service was operating at 56 mph on railroad tracks “owned, maintained and operated by CSX,” the lawsuit says.
CSX had taken down its signal system along that section of track and “as a result the railroad switches were being manually controlled by CSX. Train operations were being manually directed by CSX through telephone communications,” according to the lawsuit.
Before the Silver Service arrived on the crash scene, “CSX improperly locked with a padlock the rail switch, which erroneously directed through trains, like the Silver Service train, into the CSX railyard onto the wrong set of tracks, which were already occupied by parked trains and rail cars,” the lawsuit said.
“As a result of the improper locking of the switch by CSX, the Silver Service train was directed onto the wrong set of tracks,” the lawsuit says.
The Silver Service’s engineer applied the brakes, but it was too late and his train “crashed head-on into the idling CSX train,” the lawsuit said.
“CSX has a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid injuring or killing members of the public,” the lawsuit said. “In this case, CSX breached their duty by failing to exercise reasonable care.”
The lawsuit was filed by attorney Carl Solomon of Columbia and Bob Pottroff of Kansas, a nationally known railroad safety lawyer. Pottroff and Solomon also represented plaintiffs in South Carolina’s 2005 Graniteville fatal train crash, involving two Norfolk Southern trains.
Wife of Amtrak conductor files suit
The wife of a conductor killed in the crash of an Amtrak train with a parked freight train in South Carolina filed suit Thursday against Amtrak and another rail company, saying they were to blame for the man’s death.
In the lawsuit, Michael Cella’s widow accuses Amtrak and CSX of negligence in the death of her husband. Cella, 36, and Amtrak engineer Michael Kempf, 54, were killed Sunday when their passenger train slammed into a CSX freight train stopped on a sidetrack.
CSX, which operates the track on which both trains were traveling, was negligent in a number of areas, according to the suit filed in Florida. That includes failing to make sure a warning signal system was in place, and also locking a manual switch that forced the passenger train onto the side track where the empty freight train was parked, it said.
Because of that negligence, according to the suit, Cella “was forced to endure the horrendous fear of his pending demise as the Amtrak train approached the deadly collision point,” his final moments marked by “great conscious pain and suffering.”
The lawsuit accuses Amtrak, Cella’s employer, of failing to ensure he had a safe working environment.
Both Amtrak and CSX declined to comment on the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Associated Press
This story was originally published February 9, 2018 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Train crash lawsuit alleges ‘gross negligence’ by CSX in fatal SC derailment."